Erik DresserOregon State heavyweight Clayton Jack is 35-1 this season and aims to become the school's fifth NCAA champion in that weight class.

Oregon State hasn’t had a top-10 finish at the NCAA Wrestling Championships since 1998. The Beavers’ 21st-place finish last year was its best in more than a decade.

So when asked what is the goal when OSU begins competition in this year’s NCAAs in St. Louis that begins Thursday, two Beaver wrestlers are of one mind:

Win it.

Never mind Oregon State has never won the NCAA team title, not even during its glory days of the 1970s when its roster had as many as six all-Americans during a season. Or that multiple national rankings place the Beavers between 12th and 18th heading into the NCAAs.

Winning the title is a mindset the wrestlers say coach Jim Zalesky has drilled into them since the first day of practice.

“When you think of Oregon State, you don’t think of wrestling, but he knows we’re good enough to go back and win it. I think we’re finally starting to believe it,” said OSU junior Mike Mangrum, the No. 4 seed at 141 pounds.

For the West coast, Oregon State is as good as there is in 2012. The Beavers won the Pac-12 title, and qualified eight wrestlers, including two seeded wrestlers in Mangrum and Clayton Jack, for the NCAAs.

But nationally? Schools in the Midwest and eastern U.S. typically dominate the NCAAs, and few believe that is going to change this season.

“Zalesky has been pounding it into our heads, that the only way we’re going to be successful is if we win the national title,” Jack said.

Jack says the team’s attitude is markedly more mature than a year ago, when he said the Beavers had a lot of “me-first” wrestlers. He said there’s much more team unity in matches, and wrestlers wanting to stick around and get in extra drills during workouts.

Perhaps no one has grown up more than Mangrum. The OSU senior has had a couple scrapes with the law, involving disorderly conduct and alcohol incidents. Prior to his junior year, Mangrum was kicked off the team, and said Zalesky told him he had one more chance.

“I got kicked off the team because of being an idiot,” Mangrum said. “I’m taking things a lot more seriously.”

It wasn’t just the off-the-mat incidents for Mangrum. Two consecutive empty-handed trips to the NCAAs also shook him.

“I realized something I was doing wasn’t working, so I had to change. I said, I guess what I’m going to do is do what my coaches tell me to do,” said Mangrum, 33-3 this season.

Jack, 35-1 this season, makes his fourth appearance at the NCAAs. Jack will attempt to become OSU’s fifth NCAA champion at heavyweight.